Innovation Week in New Jersey: Hug your favorite scientist

Press file photo: Colts Neck High School chemstry students set the tone for Innovation Week.

The string of sunny, tourism-friendly weather was broken on Saturday, which we need to look at as a blessing. The normally green Jersey Shore landscape has been turning brown of late. Perhaps it is time to replace the Sun God with the Rain God. Just through Thursday.

What’s up with the what’s up? Here’s what’s up:

*The New Jersey Business and Industry Association this week is sponsoring Innovation Week, calling attention to all the cutting edge products that are produced in the Garden State. With unemployment at 10 percent, I can scarcely think of a better time. Well, maybe five years ago. But what’s done is done. So this week, hug your local math and science whiz. Or better yet, hand them a check for $100k.

*The BP oil spill has given us many cringe-worthy moments. My favorite one? Or least favorite one? Watching the Gulf state governors demand the federal government let companies keep drilling for oil offshore and then reaching down to clean up tarballs from their once pristine beaches before heading to the animal hospital to check up on the damaged baby pelican. Am I the only one who sees the connection? I can’t be.

*Mortgage rates are down to about 4.5 percent, which tells you there are a lot of desperate investors out there who are willing to settle for a 4.5 percent return. In my perfect world? We would have a 1990’s style innovation boom, where investors could find exciting companies to finance and strike it rich when they go public. The only rule is the companies would have to make something you can see (think, Google), taste (Merck), or hold (GE). The companies cannot sell air (Enron) or invent new, imaginary items to insure (Wall Street).

*It would give financial services firms something to do other than search for loopholes in the almost-passed financial reform bill. (Hey, boss, I think I found something. What if we charge them a fee each time they type in their PIN number?)

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About Michael Diamond

Michael L. Diamond is a business writer at the Asbury Park Press, covering workforce and the economy. He worked at newspapers in Pennsylvania and California before joining the Press in 1999.

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Michael DiamondMichael L. Diamond is a business writer at the Asbury Park Press, covering workforce and the economy. He worked at newspapers in Pennsylvania and California before joining the Press in 1999.E-mail Michael